LOT Old Heritage Auctions  /  2007 October Rare Books & Manuscripts #675  / 

30628

Woody Guthrie Long Autograph Manuscript Signed

Currency:USD Category:Memorabilia Start Price:5,000.00 USD Estimated At:6,000.00 - 7,000.00 USD
Woody Guthrie Long Autograph Manuscript Signed
<B>Woody Guthrie: Lengthy Autograph Manuscript Signed</B></I> "<I>Woody Guthrie</B></I>". Two pages, four columns, 7.25" x 10.5", Scott Field, Fort Dix, St. Louis, Missouri, August 12, 1945, ink. A lengthy and fantastic manuscript written during World War II when Guthrie was stationed in Scott Field outside of St. Louis at Fort Dix. Guthrie was set to do a series of records called <I>American Documentary.</B></I> It is believed that only one record ever came out of this and was produced by Asch Records (#360) called <I>Struggle: American Documentary.</B></I> It was later re-released by Sony Folkways and Stentson Records. The only album notes that appeared on <I>Struggle</B></I> were those of Moe Asch. These were notes Guthrie wrote to use on the series, but they never made it to print. In part, the notes presented here read, "<I>I met a soldier out on a rifle range down in Texas that was telling a gang of men, 'There's good and bad in every church and every race. they just got to be put in their place and made to stay in it. I say give every color his part of town and make him stay in it. My home town had a fight or a killing just about every few days. I'm as good a trade union man as the next one, but I just can't go in for this mixture of every kind and every color! They'll always have hell in the unions as long as they try to break the laws of mama nature!' I told them, 'Well, I think you're both wrong because it just so happens that I make my living making up trade union songs and singing around picket lines, at meetings, rallies, stuff like that. and I'd really like you to see you try to run your town with everybody in a hole of his own color'...We had to line up, march to our rifles and face our targets out across the field. I didn't have time right then and there to answer that man. We fired our carbines, our submachine M3's, drove away singing in our buses...We remembered a few days ago in a lecture hall a Captain, a psychiatrist, has said, 'you hear the negro out sing, you see him out march all of the other squadrons because he feels looked down on, and he shows you more friendly spirit out of unity than the other'...The Captain answered the racial expert pretty well, but of course on the subject of the fighting history of our trade union, the pregnant woman, the thirteen children, he did not have the time nor the authority to tell us about...I know that this album of Records, 'American Documentary Number One' is just a little answer to that soldier out there on that rifle range. It takes all night to sing to sing the whole answer. But it can be sung.</B></I>" The manuscript is signed "<I>Woody Guthrie, #42234634</B></I>" vertically in the left column on the reverse. A fascinating and rare Guthrie signed document from his days as a reluctant soldier.<BR><BR><b>Shipping:</b> Flat Material, Small (<a target="_blank" href="http://www.heritageauctions.com/common/shipping.php">view shipping information</a>)
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